ResourcesSuperintendent Budget Update
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Dear APS Teammates:
This is an update on recent proposed cuts by the State that amount to $4.1 million.
Last week, Governor Ritter released a budget proposal that will impact Colorado school districts for the 2009-2010 school year. One aspect of the proposal includes a possible $2.9 million cut for APS. We are now developing our 2009-2010 budget and will continue to do so over the next few months. Our top priority is keeping reductions as far from the classroom as possible. The APS budget will be proposed to the board of education in May and finalized in June.
With our increased student achievement, increased grants and the generous support of our voters who passed the mill levy, we are in better shape than many districts. Because of the mill levy override passage and our enrollment increase this year, as well as careful planning, we are able to fund our contingency budget with $2 million which will help us to offset the proposed state cuts. While these cuts will slow our momentum, we must now find the remaining $.9 million in funds to equal the $2.9 million total cut.
Also, this week we were informed from CDE that we may be asked to give up $1.2 million dollars from this years budget. Again, we must now find sources for this cut for this year.
My confidence in our ability to deal with this $4.1 million cut starts with our responsible planning last year when we cut $10 million from the budget and our passage of Mill Levy Override in November. But, this will still be challenging.
Governor Ritters proposed cuts also addressed full-day kindergarten. As we identified in VISTA 2010, our goal is to implement full-day kindergarten at every elementary school. This implementation is not dependent on state funding. A portion of the mill override funds will be used for this phased implementation so we can meet our goal. Over the next few years, we will keep to our plan and add full-day kindergarten classes at every elementary and K-8 school.
Thanks to our Chief Financial Officer Rod Weeks and his team, we have always been financially conservative. We cut costs where we can on a daily basis and we will continue to do so.
As you may know, Congress is considering the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (stimulus package). As of now, the House version would provide APS with over $17 million this July but the Senate version may be considerably less-we will have to wait and see what, if any, funds we get from the stimulus package. While the state may take away $4.1 million, the Federal Government may provide this stimulus package, if approved by both Houses and signed by the President. If this federal money is approved, it will come to us as one-time funds for specific expenditures such as construction, Title 1 (schools with high free/reduced lunch) and special education. As I have mentioned before, we cannot use one-time money for long term expenditures like pay increases.
Please know that our APS Leadership Team and the Board of Education are working hard to make sure our students and staff members are minimally impacted as a result of these proposed state budget cuts and we will keep you informed about the stimulus package and how it affects APS.
JB
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